The hegins had just left the battlefield on the side of the retreating ghost army when Kamu stood aside and leaned against a tree trunk. The young people didn't even notice what he was doing, and the ghosts didn't pay much attention to him. To them, he was only a human, no matter how much he was a ghost king himself.
"Father!" The leader of the Immortal Mist finally spoke seriously, causing the ghost in question to immediately turn towards him and look at him with a sideways nod. "Could we talk?" He asked the question, and Etele shrugged his shoulders after a few seconds of thought and nodded.
"Sure. Why not?" He raised his hands as well, then simply caught Rahul's grip. "You're coming with me too." He announced when the boy almost fell.
"Hey! Why now?" Rahul looked up at his ghost relative with angry eyes.
"Because I said so." Etele stuck out his tongue. "You guys just go back to camp. We'll be there soon too." The ghost looked at the Athamanas. Most of them started nodding and would have continued on, but Razvan looked at the ghost suspiciously. "Calm down, Csito. Just a little family chat. You won't miss anything important, don't worry." Etele waved.
"I recommend it, Svihák." The Athamana leader noted coldly, then looked at Rahul with kinder features. "Good luck with idiots." He said before he toom a deep breath and turned his back on the team that remained behind.
"Thanks." Rahul replied, then untangled himself from Etele's grip and grimaced. "I'll need it." He sighed.
"Well, now that we've got rid of the team." The ghost táltos clasped his hands together. "Out with it, Kamu! What did you want?" He asked with a grin. However, the leader of the Immortal Mist did not smile.
"This does not concern the boy." The first Vietryk nodded towards Rahul, who raised his hands to his head and turned his back on them.
"Then I will go too." He said as he was about to start again, but Etele caught him.
"You are not going anywhere." The ghost relative announced, then glanced at his adopted son while talking to Rahul. "Put your ass down there and take a nap while I talk to my son." Etele shrugged as he pointed to the nearest tree.
"Yes, grandpa!" Rahul rolled his eyes and, although grumpy, settled down at the base of the tree. After that, there was silence at the edge of the forest for a long time, until Kamu thought that the hegin boy was already asleep.
"Last night I met someone who was looking for a certain miro kahu and I started wondering." The Ishán of the Immortal Mist began. "What do you have to do with the bastard who almost burned my city to the ground?" The ghost-man asked the serious question.
"Why would I have anything to do with him?" Etele asked, then smiled. "Are you sure you're not just imagining it?"
"Don't play dumb, father. I know you're not." Kamu folded his arms in front of him. "You were chasing the same miro kahu yesterday and you seem to have no problem with someone trying to capture a nature spirit on your territory. So I'll ask you one more time and I'd like you to answer me. What do you have to do with him?" The ghost-man asked the question in a cold voice, but his father just shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
"Nothing." He said and Kamu was about to open his mouth to object when Etele continued. "Rahul, more so." He announced. "Hey, Rahul! Come on, explain to this unfortunate son of mine why I don't give a shit about what that crazy person is doing." Etele turned to the apparently sleeping Rahul.
"Why do I have to?" The young hegin asked the question, but in the meantime he had already stood up.
"So he wasn't sleeping." Kamu narrowed his eyes.
"Just as much as you used to do in the past." Etele shrugged his shoulders when Rahul reached him.
"I guess you want to know who Melhior is and what he wants, right?" Rahul took over the conversation.
"That would be the most ideal." Kamu nodded.
"He is the Onegod. At least one of his incarnations. What does he want?" Rahul tilted his head to the side. "To restore order in the world. At least that's what the Onegod wants. Melhior is a pretty wild man, his methods may not be the most sophisticated." The boy shrugged.
"And you know that because?" Kamu narrowed his eyes.
"Because I'm helping him take care of the Karabatta Valley." Rahul announced with a grin, which made Kamu's eyes widen.
"Taking care of Karabatta, what do you mean?" Ajtony appeared on Kamu's right and looked at Rahul seriously.
"Topple the power system, to create a little chaos. That's why I traveled to Madüjawr. My plan was to integrate as a traveler and crush the power of the leaders from within." The young hegin shrugged again.
"And what do the Athamanas have to say about this? Do your little friends know what your plans are?" The Ishán of the Immortal Mist grimaced.
"Why should they?" Athira's former táltos blinked. "Rahul doesn't impose his plans on everyone." Etele shook his head.
"They are his friends." Kamu rolled his eyes, and his father smiled.
"And that's where you're wrong. The Athamanas are only allies. Only the Bolacsuk boy is close to being friends to him." He thought, putting one arm around Rahul and his free hand on his hip. But his words made Kamu look at Rahul in surprise.
"Then how come they trust you so much?" The Ishán asked confused.
"I've been with them for quite some time and our goals are the same at the moment. People lose their focus on a lot of things, under such circumstances." Rahul shrugged. "They weren't part of the plan. I knew the hegins wouldn't be hard to influence. The Athamanas and their own goal of overthrowing the order of Madüjawr were just a pleasant coincidence." The boy smiled wickedly.
"How did you know that the hegins wouldn't be hard to influence?" Kamu asked, and Rahul chuckled.
"Don't say it's not clear! They're simple people, they like to show off. A child appears who wants to learn about his long-lost heritage. It's clear that they'll take advantage of the opportunity." Rahul shook his head like an adult when he sees the children making the same mistake for the twenty-eighth time. "All you need to do is gain their trust, and that's easy to achieve with a little manipulation and a little help. Amnesia can work wonders." The boy pulled out a red stone earring from his pocket, which he immediately threw towards Kamu.
"What is this?" The leader of the Immortal Mist asked, turning the object over.
"A stone that makes people trust me more easily." Rahul shrugged. "Thanks to the Athamanas, I haven't used it for a long time, if you want you can keep it." He added, and Kamu looked up at him suspiciously, but finally just sighed.
"I can see why you like him so much, father." The Ishán spoke. "He's just as double-dealing manipulator as you." He shook his head. "Good luck with your plan, kid." Kamu started after their team, but soon stopped. "Oh, just so you know, the Mist keeps an eye on everyone." He said before he disappeared into the Shadow world with Ajtony.